This is an advertisement for Degree MotionSense Deodorant for Women.

 

Sex Role Theory

This ad includes multiple women in the same apartment complex getting ready to go out for the night. They each put on the deodorant before they leave. The ad is shot in a perspective that the women do not know they are being filmed.

Woman 1:

  • Seen in her bra picking out a dress to wear, which is a bright red cocktail dress.
  • She then dances to the beat of the background music of the ad while zipping up her dress in the mirror
    • She dances in a way that puts her butt toward the camera
  • Dances around her apartment in the red dress without looking at the audience

Woman 2:

  • seen in a towel: one around her body and one around her hair
  • sings to the song and dances around while putting on the product
    • camera angle is behind her so it feels like we are intruding and she does not know

The ad definitely reinforces feminine stereotypes in how women get ready, but also shows with woman 2 that when she is singing she is not trying to look pretty, she is just enjoying the song.

 

Gaze Theory

This ad is somewhat geared towards the male gaze with its camera angles. Sometimes the camera would cut to outside the apartment building to show both women at the same time, but it just seems like we are creeping on them while they are getting ready. Also, the way the women were dancing, their faces were out of the picture and from behind, which objectifies them when this is a deodorant ad.

However, the intent behind this ad was to show that the deodorant works better the more you move, and it was accurate in showing how women sometimes get ready to go out.

The choice of camera angle could have been better and the red dress seemed a bit geared for men. I understand that they were trying to show movement, but the way they show these women moving could have been more positive than women dancing while people are watching them without permission.

 

Shared by: Megan Jasen
Image Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqFxWcCgiPQ&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=Degree